Carlsbad Real Estate “Consultant” Gets Five Years

Looks like the Carlsbad based real estate consultant, John J. Borzellino will be downsizing to a new 48 square foot, government funded home: a federal prison cell.

Borzellino (aka John J Ross) was sentenced to 5 years in federal pen and ordered to pay more than $4,000,000 in restitution for running a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud conspiracy and evading taxes. He fraudulently had lenders provide more than $8,000,000 in loans to buy real estate in three states including California.

Prosecutors said in a statement, “Borzellino arranged to purchase homes in these various states by offering morethan the seller’s asking price – with the understanding that the money over-and-above the asking price would be funneled to an entity under Borzellino’s control….. Borzellino disguised the funds diverted to him by falsely characterizing them as ‘commissions’ or ‘consulting fees’ to be paid by the sellers at closing.” They added he, “assumed a number of false identities to conceal his role in these transactions“.

Borzellino also failed to declare to the IRS nearly $1,000,000 of income from the scam.

With a simple search I found this old 2008 post regarding John Borzellino from Rip Off Report of a mark that lost $40,000 that was stolen from them by Borzellino but then paid back in monthly payments?

This guy sounds like he’s been sketchy for a long time, so it’s no surprise that this caught up with him. Apparently, he’s even published an aptly named book called Rags To Destiny, which only has a 1 star rating on Amazon.

In short, be sure that you’re using reputable service agents. If it sounds too good to be true, then there might be a Borzellino on the other end of that deal.